We made it to Sunday, and I want to talk about libraries this weekend. Public libraries offer so much, and while I use mine regularly, it wasn’t until the last few years that I became aware of all the things that my public library system offers.

My public library is a really small one, but they have a really good selection of recent books. Also, if they don’t have a copy of the book (or movie) that I want, it only takes a couple of days for an interlibrary loan to arrive from anywhere in the county. 

When I first started getting into the bookish community, I would always see people post their book hauls. As someone who didn’t have any spending money, I started posting my library hauls instead of buying books that I couldn’t afford. I expected some people to gatekeep, but what I found was a bunch of people who applauded me for posting a library haul, and supporting public libraries. So I kept doing it, and hashtagging to call attention to libraries. Why not, right?

Then the pandemic hit, and I was stuck with a stack of books and no way to get more physical books. So I turned to the library website, and discovered that I could access the entire county’s ebooks and audiobooks within seconds, for 3 weeks. That kept me busy for much of the pandemic. But I also wondered what else the website offered.

I discovered that my library offered free interactive language lessons on the website, for more than 300 languages. I took them up on that, and learned a good amount of Hebrew vocabulary and verb conjugation. It’s a good thing that I took notes, because the saying ‘if you don’t use it, you lose it,’ is true. But I’m able to access way more than just learning languages through my library website. They offer other things for free, like genealogy, magazine and newspaper access, seasons of television shows, and literacy programs for kids, all online. Now that restrictions aren’t in place anymore, the library website also offers information about upcoming events and all of the other things that they offer. I find that they have a lot of programming geared towards kids, and I think it’s great, since it helps kids associate the library and reading with fun, and will hopefully build a new generation of readers.

While this stuff was awesome during the pandemic, it’s also extremely helpful to people who are disabled, like me. It can be really hard to get out of the house sometimes, and when I fly through audiobooks, it’s nice to know that I can just swap it out for another one without having to leave the room. 

I discovered a benefit of living in New York State not too long ago, about when the book banning started becoming a thing. As a resident of the state, I’m entitled to online access to the New York Public Library (yeah, the one with the lions), the Brooklyn Public Library, and the Queens Public Library. I just had to fill out the online application for a library card, and they emailed me the information the next day. Once I added the cards to my Libby account, I was ready to go. And I can’t tell you how immensely helpful that has been—there’s so many times where I’ll look for a book that I want to read, and it isn’t at my library, and I’ll check the others, and it’s there. I’m not sure if other states offer a benefit like that, but it couldn’t hurt to check out.

So what do you think of libraries? Do you use yours? Why or why not? Did you know about any services that your library offers?